


Feather Box

by autumndynasty



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Angst, Community: 100moods, Family, Gen, Multi, Vignette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-10-08
Updated: 2012-06-13
Packaged: 2017-10-12 12:34:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumndynasty/pseuds/autumndynasty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Collection of vignettes for ACII. Warnings/character listings may be updated as more chapters are added.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Accounting

**Author's Note:**

> I've been trying to write at least one thing a day for 100 days - unofficially using the 100moods LJ comm table. Not all of them are ACII, but I think enough of them will be to justify making a collection here!
> 
> Presenting #48 - Guilty (Claudia, Ezio: family, very mild angst)

"He's making me _work_!" Claudia exclaims in disgust, flicking the pen angrily at the account book on the desk. Ezio rolls his eyes, smiling sadly. So must they all, now.

\--

"You've come to look at the book?" his sister sighs, chin resting on her hand.

Ezio snorts. "No need to look so hard-done by, Claudia! You can't be working _all_ day." Claudia jerks up in outrage.

"Long enough, brother! Do you even know what I do other than write in this account book?" Ezio leans back on his heels, eyes glazing slightly; there's no stopping Claudia when she begins complaining.

"...not to mention helping Annetta _clean_ the house, of all things, which let me tell you, is a disgrace whenever Uncle's condottieri come..." Claudia's cheeks redden, her hands flailing about as she mimes dusting, and Ezio can't help the chuckle that escapes his throat.

"What?" Claudia snaps. If she had fur, she'd be like a hissing cat.

"Sorry, Claudia," he coughs, though it's too late to hide.

But then, all of his sister's anger seems to seep away, leaving her looking worn. She toys with the book page open in front of her and can't meet Ezio's eyes.

"Though I suppose...less than you," she says, quiet. Ezio laughs again, also softer now.

"Probably about the same," he says.


	2. Promise You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Presenting #4 - Anger (Ezio: mentions of character death/violence)

And after all the shouting, the desperate fleeing, like a _dog_ with it's tail between it's legs, cold realisation sets in.

His father, his brothers slaughtered and for what? What could be so important, so _sacrosanct_ that Ezio's family had to be torn apart for it? The messages he'd delivered for his father had to be related to everything, though damn if they made any sense to Ezio.

There's still no room for sadness, and there never will be until he can kill Uberto Alberti. All Ezio can manage is quiet, burning rage. Around and around in his head – _why, why, why?_

But perhaps it doesn't matter why. Unlike Alberti, Ezio will make good on his promise. He'll hold a knife to the man's throat and pause only long enough for their eyes to meet; for the _real_ traitor to realise his fate.

The Auditore family is broken, not buried.

And the next morning, 5 holes in Uberto Alberti's chest are an angry scream of the truth.


	3. Patience is a Virtue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seems all Claudia has done is wait, and it's getting harder than ever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 100Moods table #5 - Anxious

Since the murders of Father, Federico and Petruccio, it seems all Claudia has done is wait.

That night, she’d hid with her mother and Annetta in a brothel as she waited for answers. Why had guards taken her family? Where was Ezio? Had they taken him too? Would she see any of them again? Would Mother recover from the experience? What would they do next?

Claudia had so many questions, and no one would tell her anything. She sat on hard stool on the corner so she could keep an eye on both the door and her silent mother, scowling blackly throughout the night.

\--

Moving to Monteriggioni simply changed the scenery while she waited. She had answers, certainly. Who was responsible for their troubles, where they would live, what remained of her family. They weren’t comforting truths; weren’t even complete truths.

‘Nothing is true, everything is permitted,’ indeed. Claudia certainly wasn’t permitted to follow Ezio in his search for truth and revenge. God knew she wanted to. But no, she had to stay and help Uncle Mario keep the town running; necessary work to be sure, but it was still waiting. Claudia sat at a desk, angled so she could see the main entrance through the far door, toes tapping her heart onto the floor tiles as she wrote.

\--

Waiting is getting harder and harder to do as Ezio visits less frequently and always with less to say than the last time.

He hasn’t sent word for a month and a half, now. No letters, no messengers and god forbid the man should return in person. But the chest is full of florins, and that almost always brings Ezio back promptly. There’s no sign of him though, and Claudia has just about had it.

Waiting, waiting, always waiting.

She was just 15 when they fled Firenze. Ezio was 17; she knew even then that was too young to be an active assassin. To clamber across rooftops, murder people (however guilty), or support the remains of a family. The Auditore children certainly had the innocence burned out of them, but that never stopped Claudia worrying. Particularly after occasions when Ezio has returned and all but collapsed on the stairs.

The worst is when Ezio hides his injuries from her. He doesn’t want her to worry, she knows, but he must think her stupid. She can see the tenseness around his eyes, his awkward stance. Claudia always knows; who does he think puts the bandages outside his door?

But what if he doesn’t come back this time? There’s no way of knowing where he is or what he’s doing until weeks after the event. Mother is still traumatised and Uncle Mario is distracted by riddles. She can’t do this on her own; however infrequently Ezio appears, she needs him. 

He’s the only brother she has left.

**Author's Note:**

> (Originally written for the prompt 'amused' because I got a little confused! Luckily I have a penchant for turning even the most innocent of prompts into a downer and the product fit another mood~)


End file.
